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From Minnechaug, to UMass-Dartmouth, to Springfield, then Miami, then Georgia and eventually, the Georgia Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
It’s been a long journey for Bryan Wallace, but it’s all been worth it.
A director for NLF affiliate member Thunder and the head coach at powerhouse Roswell (Ga.), Wallace officially learned he was heading into the Peach State’s lacrosse Hall of Fame recently. While he had a sense it was coming, Wallace is still thrilled with the honor.
“I found out about a week and a half ago. A fellow coach, a fellow competitor of mine as well as a guy I work club with, was the nominator for me,” Wallace said. “He asked me if I’d be okay with him nominating me. I just provided him some quick details.
“He was fired up and just called and said ‘hey man, you’re first ballot Hall of Fame as a coach from the high school scenario here in Georgia.,'” Wallace said. “I’m really excited and blown away. I’m a pretty humble, low-key guy. To me, it looks like I’ve been around for a long time in terms of what’s going on, but yeah, extremely excited to be honored going into the Hall of Fame.”
Roswell takes on Buford on Friday, Feb. 14, in a battle of two defending state champions. Thunder’s weekly high school poll has them slotted at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the Peach State. Expect lots of fireworks in this one, and the NLF will have video highlights shortly thereafter.
A Long, Winding Road
Wallace played lacrosse at Minnechaug (Mass.), where he appeared in three Western Mass. finals. He continued his career at UMass-Dartmouth where he had 98 career points. Wallace became a grad assistant at Springfield College, where he won two NEWMAC championships. After that, he moved to Miami in 2010.
Upon arriving, he was named the head coach at Gulliver Prep. Four FHSAA Final Four appearances, four district titles, eight US Lacrosse All-Americans, 66 All-State players and 72 All-County players later, Wallace moved to Marietta (Ga.) and took the job at Lassiter.
Wallace was the region’s Coach of the Year and won a Region 2 Championship in his first season. His team reached the GHSA state quarterfinals.
Centennial in Roswell was the next destination. As the ‘Head Community Coach’ for the Knights, the program went 141-33 in eight seasons. Those years included six straight GHSA playoff appearances, including three regional championships and three Region Coach of the Year honors. A 2013 state title highlighted his tenure.
Cross-City Flip
Wallace was announced as the offensive coordinator at Roswell in 2019. He took over as head coach in 2021, and the Hornets won state championships in both of the last two seasons. On the surface it was just another move and continued success in another spot, but Roswell is the crosstown rival of Centennial.
“It’s the same city, two public schools on the other side of town,” he explained. “I was there from 2011-2019 and we won a state championship in 2013. I made the flip in 2019. We had a shortened season with COVID in 2020 and then I took the reigns in 2021. We’ve been two-time back-to-back champs, playoff-bound and had some great players in both places.
“(Thunder alum) Evan Plunkett, who’s probably the no. 1 midfielder (playing at Army) in the country right now is a Roswell guy. His younger brother (Thunder 2023 four-star) Hill Plunkett is there. When I was at Centennial, I had the (Thunder alum) Solomon brothers. (Thunder alum) Ryan Siracusa who had a phenomenal career at Maryland. So, it’s just been a decorated opportunity to work with a bunch of kids that love the game of lacrosse.”
Wallace is also a prominent figure for Thunder. He is the club’s Senior Director of Regional Club Teams, as well as one of its best coaches.
Building a Special Culture
Georgia’s status as one of the top football states in the country has a trickle-down effect on every other sport in the state. Lacrosse is not excluded from that. Lacrosse’s high school season is structured around spring practice for high football school teams. That means a lot more work in the offseason.
“The high school season is very different. Georgia football runs everything,” Wallace said. “For us, in the spring we start late January, we’re done early May because spring football’s gotta get going. So, it’s a very unique scenario in terms of how we approach what we’re doing. We take a full-year approach. We’re about a 10-month of the year program.
“We treat it very much like a college program. We have an offseason program. There’s also a winter program and then our full on spring season. We’ll dabble into summer with the opportunity to play for Roswell,” Wallace continued. We have a great youth program. We have more than 200 kids .Kids understanding what our culture’s about. Kids understanding what it means to represent and wear the ‘R’ is a big deal. Going back-to-back, Roswell went back-to-back 10 years ago. I was at (Centennial) at the time, but the difference between high school and club is night and day.
“What we’re trying to do at Roswell is bring our kids in and we love on all of them, no matter what we got. We’ve got D2, D3, D1, some guys that will play club, some guys that will never pick up a stick after high school. The opportunity to be a better person, brother, son, eventually father one day, that’s what we’re striving for in the high school program.”
Elevating the South through Club Lacrosse
With that approach to the high school game, club lacrosse becomes more about competing against the best talent around the state while also forming a unique bond.
“There’s not a lot of high school coaches just walking up to games here in Georgia,” Wallace said with a laugh. “So, the club teams are definitely an opportunity to bring the best kids together from across the state of Georgia and the outlying areas that touch Georgia as well. That not only creates an opportunity for those guys to play at the next level, but the uniqueness and the bonds and relationships that are made there.”
Wallace’s name belongs with some of the best to ever do it at any level given his track record at so many different schools. The only real question now left is if he’d ever come back up to the snowy March fields in New England?
Nope. His Georgia legacy – which now has him as a Hall of Fame coach – is more than enough.
“I think it was a very unique opportunity when I got down here being from the Northeast,” he added. “There’s a lot of transplants. There’s been a bunch of guys that I’ve had the opportunity to get to know that moved down here and helped grow the game. There have been opportunities over the years to possibly get back up north, but it’s really hard after spending over 25 years in Massachusetts to leave Atlanta. The weather here is phenomenal. The people here are phenomenal.”
Staying Down South
“We get to be outside 10 months of the year. Athletically speaking, the kids are just built different here in Georgia. It’s a different mindset. It’s a different understanding. The ability to blend my knowledge and love for the game and understanding of fundamentals and what it takes with the kids down here and their ability to be athletes and just want to be better and kind of prove everybody wrong…It’s interesting. We go to club tournaments and sort of get beat up and then you get to about eighth, ninth, 10th grade, the playing field levels out and then that junior, senior year when those guys are getting recruited, we start to stack everybody.
“So, it’s been a fun journey. It would take a lot to get me to go back up to the Northeast. I love the market down here in Atlanta and definitely what I’ve been able to create and build here.”
